Non-uniform distributions of plate spacings in parallel plate regenerators have been found to induce loss of performance. In this paper, it has been investigated how variations of three geometric parameters (the aspect ratio, the porosity, and the standard deviation of the plate spacing) affects this loss in a single blow model of a parallel-plate regenerator. Simple analytical functions for the magnitude and the time scale of the reduction of performance are presented and compared to numerical results. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.